When you create a form inside an on site message, landing page, signup form or service page, you can choose from different types of questions. Each one is designed to collect a specific type of information and create a clearer experience for people completing the survey.
Below you'll find all the available question types, along with a brief description to help you choose the one that best fits the information you want to collect.
Common settings for all questions
Regardless of the question type you choose, all questions share a number of settings that let you control their appearance and behavior.
Label
Every question has a label, which is the text shown to the person completing the form.
The label is also used in the error summary to identify the question when a response is missing or invalid. For this reason, it's a good idea to make it clear and easy to recognize.
Configure a question
When you select a question in the form, the configuration panel opens on the right. The available sections may vary depending on the question type, but the main ones are:
- General, where you configure the question content and its main settings
- Styles, where you customize the question's appearance
- Rules, where you define required fields and conditions
- Advanced, where you can configure technical settings such as the question's internal name, ID, HTML attributes, and custom CSS styles
In the General section, you can also connect the answer to a contact field. Once the form is submitted, the answer is automatically saved in the linked contact field. You can also prefill the question with any value already stored for the contact.
Customize the display
Many questions let you customize how they appear to the person completing the form.
For example, you can:
- Hide the question label
- Add a subtitle to provide additional information
- Add placeholder text to suggest the expected answer
- Hide the question so it isn't displayed during form completion
- Choose whether to display the question on desktop, mobile, or both
Questions with options
Questions based on a list of options, such as single choice, multiple choice, matrix, and dropdown, share a number of settings.
You can:
- Add, edit, reorder and remove options
- Enter options manually or retrieve them from a data table or a data table query
- Manage the values associated with each option, which are used in reports, exports, and visibility conditions
- Display the options in random order while keeping selected options fixed at the beginning or end of the list
Set rules and conditions
In the Rules section, you can define how the question behaves during form completion.
For example, you can:
- Make the answer required
- Define conditional required rules so the question becomes mandatory only in specific situations
- Configure visibility conditions to display the question only when certain criteria are met, for example based on previous answers
This allows you to create dynamic forms that display only the questions that are relevant to each contact.
Question types
Each question type is designed to collect a different kind of information.
Choose the one that best fits the type of answer you want to collect and the experience you want to offer your contacts.
Text field
Allows the contact to enter a short free-text answer. It's the best choice for collecting information such as a company name, city, job title, or any other free-text response.
Example: "What's your surname?"
Besides free text, you can validate the answer format, for example as an email address, phone number, or Italian ZIP code. If the entered value is invalid, you can customize the error message shown in the form.
You can also set a minimum and maximum number of characters.
Text box
Designed for longer responses, such as comments, suggestions, or requests.
Example: "What do you think?"
Customize the size of the text area by setting the number of visible rows, and define a minimum and maximum number of accepted characters.
Single choice
The contact can select only one option from the available choices. It's ideal when you want to enforce a single choice or collect a clear, unambiguous answer.
Display the options in one or more columns, depending on your form layout.
Example: "How often do you shop online?": Every day / A few times a week / Once a month / Rarely.
If needed, you can define a preselected option.
Dropdown
The contact can select one option from a list that opens when clicked. It's a variation of the single choice question, useful when you have many options or want to keep the form more compact.
Example: Country of residence, Industry.
You can display an empty initial option, or provide placeholder text such as "Select...". Alternatively, you can define a preselected option.
Multiple choice
The contact can select more than one option. This question is useful when you want to collect all the choices that apply to the contact. Options can be displayed horizontally or vertically, in one or more columns, and dynamically.
Example: "Which topics are you most interested in?", "Which days do you prefer to receive our communications?", "Which channels do you prefer to be contacted through?"
You can define one or more preselected options and set the minimum, maximum or exact number of selectable answers.
You can also define exclusive answers. When the contact selects one of these options, any other selected options are automatically cleared.
Checkbox
This question type provides only two possible choices, such as "Yes / No" or "True / False". It's ideal when you need a clear answer, especially when the contact must give consent, confirm a condition, or answer a simple verification question.
Example: "I accept the privacy policy", "I will attend the event", "Are you already a customer?"
You can define the initial state of the checkbox by choosing whether it should be unchecked, checked or set using a placeholder. The last option is useful, for example, for prefilling the answer with the value of another question.
Matrix
A matrix lets you display multiple statements or questions (rows) that the contact answers by selecting from a common set of options (columns).
It's useful when you want to collect feedback on multiple items (such as products, services, or experiences) using the same response scale, avoiding the need to repeat similar questions.
Example: "How satisfied are you with each of the following aspects of our service?" Response time / Clarity of information / Team expertise.
You can choose from three matrix types:
- Single choice matrix, where the contact selects one answer for each row
- Multiple choice matrix, where the contact can select multiple answers for each row
- Rating scale, which lets you assign a numeric weight to each column to calculate average values in reports
The matrix uses two separate option lists, one for the rows and one for the columns, where you can add, edit, reorder, and remove items.
- For rows, you can customize the labels used in reports. By default, magnews generates them automatically from the row text, but you can define them manually if needed. Matrix reports include two charts: one showing all collected responses and another summarizing the results for each row. These labels are used to identify the rows in those reports.
- For columns, you can enable unique answers per column, so each column can be selected only once across the entire matrix. If you choose the Rating scale type, you can also assign a weight to each column. These weights are used to calculate the average score for each row in the reports.
Rating
The contact can rate something with a single click. It's ideal for collecting a quick evaluation of a product, service, or experience.
Example: "Rate the event overall."
Net Promoter Score
The contact assigns a score from 0 to 10 to indicate how likely they are to recommend, for example, a product, service, or company.
Example: "How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague?"
To learn more about using Net Promoter Score and interpreting the results, see the dedicated article.
Ranking
The contact ranks a list of options according to their preferences or priorities. This is useful when you want to understand not only which option is preferred, but also the relative importance of each one.
Example: "Rank these factors by importance when choosing a product": Price / Quality / Delivery time / Support.
To learn more, see the dedicated page.
Date field
Allows the contact to select a date from an interactive calendar or enter it manually. It's useful when you need to collect a specific date related to an event, availability, or personal information.
Example: date of birth, appointment date, deadline.
You can limit the selectable dates by setting a minimum date and/or a maximum date.
You can also prefill the field with current date or with a specific date selected from the calendar.
Numeric field
Allows the contact to enter a numeric value. You can choose whether to accept integer numbers or decimal numbers. It's useful for collecting quantities, scores, ages, or other numeric values.
Example: "How many employees does your company have?", "How many purchases have you made in the last three months?"
You can define a minimum and/or maximum allowed value, and prepopulate the field with a default value.
Captcha
Protects the form from automated submissions by requiring a verification before it can be submitted. t's especially useful when you use a single opt-in subscription.
You can choose from three Captcha types:
- Captcha, where the contact enters the code displayed in an image. You can customize the number of characters, the image size, the text and background colors, and the position of the image relative to the input field
- Google reCAPTCHA v2, which asks the contact to confirm that they are not a robot. You can choose between a light or dark theme and a standard or compact size
- Google reCAPTCHA v3, which verifies requests automatically without requiring user interaction. You can configure the minimum accepted score, from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the more likely the submission comes from a human user
To learn more, see how to configure Captcha.